A Balance Sheet for the Pentagon

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The Department of Defense initiated its first financial statement audit last December – “the largest and most complex financial audit ever,” according to a recent DoD report on military spending in 2018. Audit results are scheduled to be released on November 15.

The chart below, drawn from the DoD report, highlights one component of the audit, providing a summary of the Pentagon’s roughly $2.6 trillion balance sheet.

According to the chart, the Pentagon owns $761 billion worth of property and equipment, including 512 “active installations” around the world, more than 14,000 aircraft, and 279 “battle force ships.”